Trimming board



TRIMMING BOARD I Fil ad Oct. 50, 1947 JNVENTORI.

Earle C. Pierce Patented July 3, 1951 UNITED STATES QATENT OFFICE 6 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in trimming boards such as used for squaring and cutting paper or various types of sheet material. One of the objects of this invention is to devise a new trimming board that will be particularly adapted for use in the dark room of a photographers laboratory. In such use it is often necessary to cut or trim paper or film to a smaller predetermined size from the standard size sheet and which cutting, because of the sensitiveness of the paper or the film, should be accomplished in a dark room, or one with but little light.

For this purpose, I have devised a gauge plate having its upper surface provided with a series of parallel ridges or edges set to a predetermined scale from the cutting edge of the board, and which plate may be either attached to the conventional trimming board or may be readily incorporated into the board structure at the place of manufacture. The purpose of these ridges is to act as a stop for the material to be cut at a predetermined scale from the cutting edge of the trimming board to properly dimension and square the material with the cutting knife of the trimming board. Further, the character of the ridges are such that the operator can readily determine the proper ridge for the selected size the material is to be cut by feeling with his fingers and counting the ridges from the cutting edge of the board without the necessity of actually seeing these ridges.

Another object of this invention is to notch indicia along the crest portion of the ridges or edges, which by feeling the same will serve to indicate to the operator the distance that a particular ridge is set from the cutting edge of the trimming board.

With these and other objects in view, the invention resides in certain novel arrangements and construction of parts, as will hereinafter be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

The invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawing is a preferred embodiment, in Which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional trimming board with the gauge plate forming the subject of this invention incorporated therein, and

Fig. 2 is an end View of the trimming board to show particularly the character of the ridges or edges employed to act as a stop for paper or material to be cut to a predetermined size in the dark.

Referring now to the drawing in which like reference numerals denote like parts throughout the several views, the numeral l0 denotes a trimming board preferably made of wood and supported on cleats H secured at the opposite ends and bottom surface of said board. At one edge of the trimming board H], and as the most convenient, the right edge, there is secured preferably a hard metal strip I2 having one edge l2a. that serves to act as one of the cutting edges in conjunction with a knife blade [3 attached to an operating handle 14. The handle i l in the usual manner is adapted to fulcrum from the upper or head end of the board In as viewed in Fig. 1 by means of a pivot pin l5 journaled in a bearing support l6 suitably secured to the head end of said board l0.

Also secured at the head end of the board is a scale plate I! having line indicia I8 thereon and the corresponding numerals to designate the dis tance in inches that said lines are positioned. from the cutting edge of the board Ill. The scale plate I! is disposed above the normal working surface of the board ll! to the extent of its own thickness thus providing for an edge l9 that is positioned at a right angle to the cutting edge 12a and against which the material to be cut may be abutted and squared prior to the cutting operation.

Since it is the particular object of my invention to provide a trimming board suitable to be used in a dark room, for that purpose I have provided a metal plate 20 preferably made of aluminum and which is of a size to cover substantially the entire upper working surface of the board I0. As shown in both figures of the drawing, the original surface of the trimming board is cut down as at 2| to accommodate the plate 2%, and the edge of said plate 20 adjacent the metal strip [2 is spaced slightly therefrom to leave a portion of-the board material exposed therebetween in the form of an elongated division rib 22. The plate 20 may be made secure to this trimming board as by screws 23 positioned in diametrically opposite corners.

Into the upper surface of the plate 20 there are cut, milled or otherwise provided a series of parallel grooves 24 having a somewhat serrated formation in cross section. Specifically, the grooves 24 have base portions 25 disposed at a relatively small angle to the plane of the plate 251 and a complementary or ridge edge 26 normal to the plane of said plate. The base portions 25 of the grooves 24 are formed to have their right ends merge into a plane common with the upper surface of the plate 20 and are biased downwardly to the lowermost ends of the edges 26, and therefore said edges 2?; are positioned to face the cutting edge 52a of the board it and thereby serve as a stop against which the material to be cut to a predetermined size may be abutted and squared for the cutting operation.

The grooves 24 are of a sufficient depth at the edges 26 to easily permit the abutting of the material thereagainst as a positive stop while working in the dark. Furthermore, the depth of the edges 26 are such that by merely feeling of the same and counting for the cutting edge I2a of the board, the proper groove may be selected to the size that the material is to be out. As shown in Fig. 2, a sheet of material A is slid across the top of the trim board from the cutting edge and while the operator has his finger upon the selected edge 28 of the size the material is to be out, he can then guide the leading edge of the material A into the predetermined selected groove 24 and by slightly biasing said material as at A cause it to abutt against the complementary edge 26 as a stop. Furthermore the material A when abutted against any of the edges will be properly squared with the cutting edge IZa while placed in any position upon the plate 20 Without necessarily using the edge E9 of the scale plate ll. It is to be noted from Fig. 1 that the grooves 2d are so cut that the :7

edges or stop ridges 25 are alined with the scale lined indicia E8 on the scale plate ll.

Preferably the first stop ridge 2% at right of the plate. 28 starts with the two inch line on the scale and the edges 26 are arranged in inches along the full width of the board except for between the 2 and 4 inch dimensions wherein there is some advantages in having grooves 2 3 with their corresponding stop-ridges 26 upon a inch intermediate position or scale. The paper for photography is bought in 8 by 10" standard size sheets and usually cut into smaller sizes of 4" or 5" or 5" by 7 for which I have shown this gauge plate 26 as being particularly designed. It is to be understood, however, that the grooves can be set to any dimensions to meet the more specific needs of any industry.

As another means of more quickly determining the particular distance that certain ridges are set from the cutting edge E20 along certain of the crest portion of the stop ridges 2% there are cut notches 21 of a number to indicate the specific distances that the particular ridges 26 are set from said cutting edge, as for instance, the ridge 25aligned with the scale line of 2 is cut with two notches 27, and the ridge aligned with scale line of 3 is cut with three notches 2'! and so on across the plates 20. By these notches 21 an operator in a dark room. can quickly find the proper stop ridge to select to cut the film material to a desired size.

One form of the invention is presented herein for the purpose of exemplification, but it'will, of course, be appreciated that the invention is susceptible of embodiment in other structurally 4. modified forms coming equally within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In combination with a trimming board hav-- ing a cutting edge and a cooperating cutting blade, of a series of longitudinal grooves arranged parallel to said cutting edge, said grooves having bases of a relatively small angle to the upper surface of said board and complementary ridges substantially normal to said surface, said ridges being set at predetermined distances from said cutting edge and serving as a stop for material to be cut on said trimming board.

2. In combination with a trimming board having a cutting edge and a cooperating cutting blade, of a series of longitudinal grooves arranged parallel to said cutting edge, said grooves being defined by a base slightly biased to the upper surface of said board and a complementary ridge substantially normal to said upper surface and facing said cutting edge.

3. In a trimming board as defined by claim 2 and wherein means is provided along the crest edges of said ridges to determine by feeling the particular count or distance that any particular ridge is located from the cutting edge of said board.

4. In a trimming board as defined by claim 2 and wherein notches are cut into the crest edge of ridges to indicate by a manual touch the particular count or distance that said ridges are located from the cutting edge of said board.

5. In a trimming board having a cutting edge and a cooperating cutting blade fulcrumed at the head end of said board, a scale plate having designated line indicia and arranged across said board adjacent the head end of said board, and a series of relatively widely spaced grooves of serrated formation formed in the upper surface of said board, each groove having a base slightly biased to and an abrupt face substantially normal to the upper surface of said board, each abrupt face positioned to face the cutting edge thereof and serving as a stop for cutting material upon said board to some predetermined size, said ridges being arranged to aline with the line indicia of said scale.

6. In a trimming board as defined by claim 5 wherein notches are provided in the crest edges of said ridges to designate the distance that any specified ridge is positioned from one of the edges of said plate parallel to said grooves.

EARLE C. PIERCE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 380,683 James Apr. 10, 1888 1,657,222 Meyer Jan. 24, 1928 2,327,000 Lund Aug. 17, 1943 3 9 Rothblum Oct. 5, 1948 

